Centaurs looking to get Crude

After winning their first game of the Edmonton Rugby Union Division II season last weekend, the Grande Prairie Centaurs rugby club are on the road this weekend to take on LA Crude RFC.

After beating the Fort McMurray Knights last Saturday, the Centaurs (1-2) take on another tough 15’s crew this weekend in the undefeated Leduc side (2-0).

“(LA Crude) is another team that’s been in the top three the past four or five years,” Centaurs head coach Gus Fai said. “That makes them tough to beat … they like to spread the ball wide and have good individual players who also work as a team. (They’re) always a hard team to play.”

The game is set for 2:30 p.m. on Saturday.

It’s more convenient to get players to show up for a home game but a lengthy road trip to Leduc will necessitate a day off, or possibly two days, for some players.

Fai said there will be a full team of 15, but beyond that, the coach isn’t sure how many guys will make it. Last week the club had more than 20 guys out for the game.

“We do have a few people away this weekend,” Fai said. “In saying that, we have other guys who want to step up into that spot and try to make that their spot.”

The Centaurs picked up a 66-27 win over the Knights in ERU play at Macklin Field on Saturday afternoon.

“I was really pleased with the result,” Fai said. “We trained really hard on the stuff we didn’t do well in the past week. We wanted to improve on those areas and, thankfully, we did. I was pretty happy with it.”

The Centaurs crossed a threshold on Saturday afternoon in the victory over the Knights.

“Four years ago was the last time we beat them,” Fai said. “Having the depth on the bench but having numbers who are good at their jobs, that’s made a big difference.”

Though the club has been positive on its depth being a strength, which it certainly is, there is positional imbalance that should work itself out due to competitive guys looking for something called ‘PT’ or playing time.

“We have a lot of backs, with guys competing for positions in the back, in the forwards, not so much,” Fai said. “We are training people to play different positions from the backs and forwards and it’s making it more competitive. Everyone wants to play. And knowing (it has given the players) an opportunity to learn a different position that they might be pretty good at and never considered before.”

The heavy differential in the scoreline against the Knights may have a reverberating effect on the lineup and what the coach is trying to do with it.

“Everything that we had planned in how we wanted to run the season, and run the team, the guys have been able to see what we can do if we stick to our gameplan,” Fai said. “It’s good to see everything coming (together).”